It started when they took and hitched a boiler to a wheelAnd made the mechanism run along on rails of steel,But there were lots of people who would never ride the train,They said it was the devil's work and chanted this refrain:

I'm gonna walk on the ground like the good lord intended,Like he meant for me and meant for you.I'm gonna walk on the ground like the good lord intended,Like the good lord intended us to do.

It wasn't long before they figured out a way to flyAnd there were airplanes zooming every which way in the sky,Folks said, "If man was meant to fly, he'd have a pair of wings!You'll never get me up in one of them confounded things."

I'm gonna ride on the train like the good lord intended,Like he meant for me and meant for you. I'm gonna ride on the train like the good lord intended,Like the good lord intended us to do.

But planes and trains were just the start, and pretty doggone soon,They had a rocket ship just pointing straight up at the moon.Folks laughed and called it crazy and they hollered at the crew,"You'll never get it off the ground, and even if you do --"

I'm gonna fly in the plane like the good lord intended,Like he meant for me and meant for you.I'm gonna fly in the plane like the good lord intended,Like the good lord intended us to do.

They're gone now, all those things at which the people used to scoff,And so are all the people, since that cobalt bomb went off.There's just a handful of us left, to start the world anew,And we've agreed on one thing that we all are gonna do.

We're gonna walk on the ground, like the good lord intended,Like he meant for me and meant for you.We're gonna walk on the ground, like the good lord intended.Like the good lord intended us to do.